


i woulda followed all the way to the graveyard

by williamschofield (orphan_account)



Series: adrian mellon and his new life [1]
Category: IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Adrian Mellon Survives, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fights, Homophobia, Hurt/Comfort, IT Chapter Two Spoilers, M/M, Post-IT Chapter Two (2019), The Kissing Bridge (IT), everyone after richie is mentioned im Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-19 14:28:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20658749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/williamschofield
Summary: He gets released Friday, a week and a day after the attack happened. He’s still in shock from everything that happened, and there’s scars from what happened, but it’s fine now. He does, though, wish he had a chance to thank the three for paying off his bill, but he won’t ever have a chance, so it doesn't matter now.All that matters is what he sees on his phone.or,adrian doesn't die by pennywise's hands and he gets to meet richie tozier and listen





	i woulda followed all the way to the graveyard

**Author's Note:**

> title from graveyard from halsey bc i listened to that for like 30 minutes writing this
> 
> anyways dedicated to tyler bc he had to put up with me while writing this  
im sorry

“Oh, thank God.” Is the first thing Adrian hears when he wakes up, a hand wrapped tightly around his own. He looks over, the best he can through his hurting eyes, and he sees his boyfriend smiling, and he squeezes his hand, gripping it harder. “I was worried you wouldn’t wake up, and the doctors said that might be a possibility, and I couldn’t stop worrying, and-”

“Hey, I'm fine now, aren’t I?” He says in a raspy voice, coughing as soon as he finishes his sentence. Don nods, standing up suddenly to hug him, hands wrapped tight around his shoulders. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“I thought I lost you.” Don speaks, voice shaking, and Adrian wraps his own arms around him, wires be damned. “You weren’t breathing, as soon as they saw you weren’t breathing they ran, and I had to do CPR, and they were almost too late when I called 911, and-and I thought-”

“You don’t have to think of that anymore, Don.” He says, and Don nods against him, shoulders shaking. “I’m okay. I’m fine. I’ll survive, and as soon as we can, we can leave this shithole and move to New York, or Hawkins, or some random ass town no one knows about. Anywhere that isn’t here, alright?”

“Alright.”

Don pulls back and wipes at his eyes, and his mouth opens to speak again, when a nurse walks into the room, smiling warmly at Adrian when she sees he’s awake.

“How are you feeling, Mr. Mellon?” She asks, walking over to check his vitals.

“As good as I can, miss.” He gives a small smile, and she seems to accept that as the best answer, coming over to pull up his cover.

“Do you feel any pain? If you need us to, we can give you more medicine.”

He shakes his head, _ I can’t afford that _, and thanks her. She just smiles at him and moves to leave, but before she reaches the door, she turns back around.

“I almost forgot! You don’t have to worry about your bill anymore, Mr. Mellon. Three kind gentlemen already paid for it.” She smiles, and he frowns, confused.

“Who?”

“Oh, I’m not really supposed to say, but I guess they won’t really care. Richie Tozier, Ben Hanscom, and Bill Denbrough all paid off your bill. They wouldn’t stop harassing us until we finally let them pay it off.” She says, smiling, and she leaves the room, like she didn’t just say something that affects him more than she knows.

“Oh my God, Adrian.” Don says, and Adrian turns to look at his boyfriend, and he’s smiling so hard. “Famous people just paid your bill. Oh my God, they’re in Derry. _ Derry _.”

“Holy fuck.” He mumbles, and he’s confused, so very confused, _ why did three celebrities decide to pay his bill out of everyone _, but he’s smiling so wide and his face hurts so much.

“Adrian, you’re so incredibly lucky.” Don breathes out, and he nods, reaching out to hold his hand. He gips him, tightly, and he closes his eyes, relaxing back. “I love you.”

“I love you too, D.” He replies, and he's never said those words in that order, but it feels so incredibly easy to say, and he decides, in that moment, he won’t mind saying them again.

-

He gets released Friday, a week and a day after the attack happened. He’s still in shock from everything that happened, and there’s scars from what happened, but it’s fine now. He does, though, wish he had a chance to thank the three for paying off his bill, but he won’t ever have a chance, so it doesn't matter now.

All that matters is what he sees on his phone.

**Richie Tozier**

**@trashmouth**

_ I have two things to announce to everyone, and this isn’t a joke. I need you to know that this isn’t a joke tweet. _

_ None of my jokes have been written by me, all of them are written by other people. _

_ I’m bisexual, and I’ve been in love with a man for 27 years. _

He’s surprised, and for the first time, he wonders if the fact he got beat up by being gay is what made Richie Tozier, best stand-up comedian out there, choose to pay _ his _ bill. Not the lady that broke her hip. Not the boy who broke his arm. Him.

He feels happy and sad at the same time, and he can't tell which one is right.

So he leaves his house, and he walks down the street, not thinking of anything. He doesn’t think about the homophobes in the town, or the fact that he doesn’t have anybody he can call his own family, and certainly not the fact that he doesn’t have anyone he can call on in this shitty town, other than Don.

Not thinking about any of that stuff.

He doesn’t pay attention to where he’s going, and soon enough, he finds himself at the kissing bridge. It’s empty, and he’s very glad it is, because it means he gets the freedom to go over to do his carving, and no one can bother him over it, but as soon as he gets to the spot, he hears an engine running. He freezes, and he wants to run, but a car pulls up and stops before he can leave, and he’s shocked again, because Richie Tozier climbs out of the car.

“Oh, sorry, did I interrupt something?” The man asks, and he sounds worried, and Adrian shakes his head, because he didn’t, really. All he was going to do was carve him and Don’s initials, anyways. 

“No, you didn’t interrupt anything.” He says, softly, and Richie nods, coming over to him.

“Can I still apologize, though? I feel like I interrupted something, still.” Adrian shrugs, and the two stay silent, staring at all the names carved into the bridge.

“I’m Richie.” The man speaks a minute later, and Adrian turns to look at him. “What’s your name?”

“Adrian. Adrian Mellon.” He shoves his hands into his pockets and turns to look back at the wood, and he tries to ignore Richie staring at him.

“Are you okay?” He finally asks a moment later, and Adrian shrugs. “I heard what happened, and I want to know if you’re okay.”

“I will be, eventually. Once I get out of this shitty town.” 

“Good. Everything’s better when you get out of this hell-hole.” Richie says, and Adrian nods, finally turning to look at the man when a thought crosses his mind.

“How did you find out what happened to me?” He asks, and Richie rubs his hand on the back of his neck, looking embarrassed.

“It might’ve been because me and my friends passed by the people that beat you up and beat them up until they told us what they did?” Adrian’s mouth drops, and Richie laughs nervously when he sees the sight. “I know, I probably shouldn’t have done that, but I just fucking hate homophobes, and my friends really hate them too.”

“Thank you, I guess?” He says after a couple seconds, glancing away, nervously twisting the ends of his jacket. “And thank you for paying my bill.”

“You’re welcome. It wasn’t a problem; Bill and Ben didn’t hesitate to help pay it. They wanted to pay for it all on their own, and we all fought for a couple minutes on which one would do it, until Beverly and Eddie finally had a solution.” He laughs, wiping a tear from his eye, and Adrian acts like he doesn’t notice it, knowing he would want someone to do the same.

“Can you thank them for me? You and them, literally changed my life with that decision, and I want them to know how much that means to me.” He asks, and when Richie nods, he feels so relieved. “Thank you. Thank you _ so much _.” He pauses, and he tries to think on how he can say it any other way, but there isn’t, so the best he can say is “Can I hug you?” while watching Richie’s reaction.

Richie looks shocked for a second, but he smiles, stepping forward, and he hugs Adrian, as the answer to the question. Adrian only comes up to his shoulders, and it shouldn’t make Adrian as happy as he is, but also holy fuck he’s hugging his role model right now holy _ fuck _. 

“This is amazing.” He says into his chest, and he feels, rather than hears, Richie chuckle at that. 

A few moments later, he finally pulls away, and he looks down. “Thank you, again. For everything.”

“It’s not a problem. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.” Richie smiles down at him, and Adrian feels happy inside. “Do you want my number, so we can talk later?”

“Yeah, but I want to make sure, it’s not for you to try and fuck me, is it?” He asks, and Richie laughs at that, shaking his head already.

“No, no, I’m not trying to fuck you. I just want to be your friend.” 

“Okay.” Adrian says at that, and he holds his hand out, Richie’s phone dropping into it a few seconds later. He finds contacts easily, and he’s finished typing his name and handing it back when he sees the name Eddie with a heart beside it. “Who’s Eddie?”

Richie freezes beside him, and when he turns to look at him, a couple of tears are coming down his face, and he slightly panics, thinking he did something wrong. 

“Shit, I’m sorry.” Adrian says, turning towards him,a nd his eyes are wade and his hands are moving everywhere, trying to think of something to say, something to _ do _, but before he can get another word out, Richie speaks, voice low.

“He was my best friend.” He gets out, and he grips his phone tightly, as if he’ll lose it if he doesn’t. “He was the one the tweet was about.”

“The man you’ve been in love with for 20-something years?” He says, and he doesn’t speak loudly, for all the world can hear. He speaks quietly, this conversation just between the two of them, standing in front of the Kissing Bridge.

“Yeah. God, yeah.” Richie breathes deeply, pressing a hand to his eyes. “He was the man I’ve been in love with for 27 years, longer than that, even, and I never got to even tell him that. I never got to tell him that I loved him, because he got killed by the stupid fucking clown that killed my best friend’s little brother.”

“Did... did the clown have orange hair and white skin?” He asks, the image popping into his head, because that’s what he saw the night he almost died, it was in the bushes, and it would’ve gotten him if the ambulances hadn’t shown up. 

Richie’s fallen silent at that, and he shoves his phone in his pocket, looking at Adrian.

“How did you know?” He asks, and Adrian looks down at the ground.

“He was one of the bullies that attacked me, and he transformed on the edge of the bridge, in the bushes, like he wanted to leap out and grab me and eat me whole, and I-I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget that face.” His breath hitches, and he pulls out his inhaler, shaking it and holding it to his lips quickly, pressing down. He breathes in, deeply, sighing as soon as he has enough air in his lungs. 

“God, I’m so sorry.” Richie says, and Adrian shrugs.

“You couldn’t have stopped it.”

“Oh, trust me, I could’ve. Thank god you weren’t the first victim. Or any victim, for that matter.” 

“Wh-what do you mean victim?” He asks, and he’s suddenly cold, even though the sun’s shining and it’s over 80 degrees out.

“Shit, you don’t know.” Richie says, and when he sits on the sidewalk, Adrian follows, sitting in front of him.

“So, you saw the clown, right? He has orange hair, white skin, and a fucking outfit from like the 1800’s. He’s, uh, he’s been terrorizing this town since before your grandparents were even thought of. Before your great-great-grandparents were even thought of. He’s been here for like, thousands of years, terrorizing locals every 27 years, eating some kids and I guess he occasionally wanted to eat adults, unless he mistook them for 16-year-olds, like I did with you. So, he wakes up every 27 years, and he goes up to the surface, and he gets kids he wants to eat, he chooses them, and then he takes them, away from their place, and he eats them. He always tricks them, using things they like, and when they trust him, he just eats them.

“That’s how… that’s how we think he got my best friend’s brother, Georgie. Because Bill didn’t feel like going out, so Georgie went out when it was raining, with his paper boat, and he never returned, and they found his blood at the drain, with torn paper, and we think he just tricked him. Just like he did it with the other kids. He took Betty, and we found her shoe in the drain, and then later, in-in the Neibolt house, me and Bill, uh, saw her. We saw her get dragged backwards, and then It tricked me into a room, using Eddie, where I saw my fear, and he almost got me, reaching out. But Bill got the door open and we were in the room we saw Betty in, and a form of Eddie was in the mattress, and when we turned around, there were three, uh, doors. 

“One said Very Scary, one just said Scary, and the last one said Not Scary At All, and sce we were dumb, we just choose Not Scary At All. And it’s quiet, right? Then we hear the voice of a girl, saying something about her shoes, and I reach up and turn on the light, and her hands were strapped to the top of the closet, and her body was just hanging, and she didn’t have anything below her wait, and we could see her guts, the blood dripping, and she just screamed at us, and we yelled and slammed the door shut, and I started to freak out, and Bill calmed me down, and told that it wasn’t real.

“I believed him, and we open the door, and we hear Eddie screaming, and we run, and we find the room, and It’s leaning over him, glaring at us, and I guess he heard Bill, because he starts talking, doing a sad voice, saying something like ‘Is this not real enough for you?’ and then he tells him, uh, that it was real enough for Georgie, and he charges at us, and we just cowered, but our badass friend Beverly slammed a pole into his head, and he stops, and we move around him and scramble over to Eddie, and he hurts our friend Ben, and he almost comes at us, but he slinks down to the basement and disappears down a well, and I set, uh, Eddie’s arm, uh, and then we leave as fast as our bikes will fucking taking us, uh, and we take Eddie to his mom, and she calls Beverly a slut and insults us, and then she leaves with Eddie.

“And then we fight. Not really, but me and Bill throw a couple punches and he gets me in the face, and for a couple weeks, I don’t talk to him and I go to my other best friend Stan’s Bar Mitzvah, and he curses and I help him, and then I go to the arcade and Bill comes and tells me Beverly got taken, and we all go to save her, and we almost die in the process and Bill almost lets himself get taken by It, but I pull out a bat and slam it into his face, and then we all jump forward and beat the shit out of him, and he disappears, and we thought he had died. He didn’t, though, but we made a promise that if he ever came back, we would come back too.

“And then we, uh, we mostly did.”

“What do you mean, mostly?” Adrian asks quietly, and the sounds of nature fill the silence as Richie stares at the wood, his hands playing with the knife he pulled out of his pocket.

“You know how I went to my friend Stan’s Bar Mitzvah?” Adrian nods, and Richie sighs, staring down. “He killed himself. He killed himself, because the stupid fucker thought that if all seven of us went, we would all die. So he killed himself so we could all survive, and he knew of my feelings for Eddie, and he thought we would be happy together, but I guess he didn’t even think that Eddie would die too.” He wipes his eyes, and if his voice shakes again when he speaks, then Adrian doesn’t say a word about it.

“It started killing again the day you got attacked, because he went and he killed someone else, and that’s how Mike knew he was back, because he went down and he saw a message written in blood, and he called all of us, and we came. And then we saw a message It sent for us, and we cried and we fought and we got things from our past, we performed this ritual, but it didn’t fucking work, and we had to run and face fears and I had to stare into, these, these fucking deadlights and I saw Eddie die right in front of me and the Eddie threw a rod at It and I dropped, and I stared up at him, because I just saw him dead, and he was so happy, because he was saying he killed him, and a claw just came through his chest, and hsi blood sprayed all over him, and he fucking took him away.

“I got to him, and the other’s were fighting It, shrinking him, but I wrapped my jacket around him and said I would be back soon, and I helped kill It, but when I came back, Eddie was dead. I d-didn’t even get to take his body back up, because everything was collapsing, and when we got up and out the house, everything collapsed, and they had to hold me back because in those hours, I would’ve died with Eddie. And we went back to our special place, and we all cried, and now the other’s are still at the hotel, waiting for me to return.”

Richie’s turned away, and Adrian’s crying, but he doesn’t wipe them away, and he’s instead looking at Richie, and he feels so sad for him.

“I’m sorry, that all of that happened to you.” Is all he manages, and it isn’t even a lot, but it’s enough for Richie, who turns to him and smiles through the crying.

“Thanks.” Is what he says, and he walks to his car, and he stands by the door for a moment. “If you ever need me, just text me, alright? I just cried out that entire story to you, and you didn’t act like you wanted me to hurry up. You just listened, and if you ever need something like that with me, just text, call, whatever, alright? If someone beats you up, or you need me to pick you up, text me. I don’t care if you think you’ll be interrupting me, just do it.”

“O-okay, I will.” Adrian says, and Richie climbs into his car and drives off, and when he looks back at the blank spot of wood on the bridge, he realizes he feels better than when he first started walking there.

He pulls out the knife, and he kneels in front of the wood, and he brings his knife up.

**Author's Note:**

> follow my tumblr!! it's @stanleyurris


End file.
